He was on the processing deck, sliding his knife into the belly of the thousandth fish of that day’s catch, when the Sea Wolf slowed and began to turn.

Could this be it? Were they turning toward shore?

Then he saw it on the horizon.

They all saw it.

The crew abandoned their tasks and moved toward the starboard gunwale of the ship, as if dragged there by force. The guards did nothing to stop them. They, too, were moving toward the Sea Wolf’s starboard side. They stood a few meters behind the crew.

It was a gray, terraced mass, the size of forty Sea Wolves or more. It was studded with outcroppings of recoilless rifle emplacements, gantries, and cranes. Men moved about on its decks—sfumato figures in the mist off the water.

“A factory ship,” someone said.

There was no shore to be seen anywhere. The undifferentiated surface of the ocean met with the horizon in every direction.

Eiko glanced to his right, at Son. Son was weeping, his face a mask of exhaustion and despair.

The Sea Wolf continued its arcing turn. All along the gunwale, the faces of the crew were the same—streaked with tears, the hope torn out of them.

The Sea Wolf’s horn moaned and was answered by a low growl from the factory ship. Eiko saw something else in the faces of his crew mates then: terror.

Chapter 16

We see a level of tool use in the octopus that surpasses that of any birds or mammals other than humans. Consider the compound tool use of the Indonesian octopuses, who carry two discarded coconut halves with them across the seafloor, stilt-walking with them underneath their bodies, then reassembling the halves to use as armor against predators. The coconuts, discarded by humans, are collected by the octopuses for this specific purpose.

While we see other animals use found objects for shelters and assemble compound objects (such as nests), nowhere else do we see this level of sophisticated tool use in the animal kingdom. This cannot be dismissed as instinct. It is a learned behavior. When we try to reassemble the train of thought that must have gone into this, what else can we do but admit we are looking at an animal whose curiosity, adventurousness, and sophistication are unparalleled in most of the animal world?

—Dr. Ha Nguyen, How Oceans Think

16

THE WORLD STILL CONTAINS MIRACLES, despite everything that has been done to it.

Ha watched the automonk carry the wicker basket down to the beach. Gently, the automonk tilted the basket to the sand. The small, flippered ovals of sea turtle hatchlings poured out, scrambling for the waterline.

Despite everything we have done to the ocean, despite everything we have done to this world, life finds a way.